• toolbar buttons

• menus

• the mouse

• the keyboard

• shortcut keys

• a combination of these

Imagine sitting down to a course in using Microsoft Office - without a mouse attached to the computer...

And then imagine that the monitor has been removed as well.

What would you need to know to be able to use the applications efficiently?

Learning guides on use of computer applications can pose particular difficulties for some learners with a disability:

• people who do not use a mouse are often not given keyboard or menu alternatives for completing tasks

• graphics of screenshots are often used without text description

There are significant costs in time and money to overcome these difficulties.  Whole manuals have been rewritten to simply add keystroke instructions.

Such keystroke instructions could potentially benefit all learners.  Most people know the shortcuts to Copy (CONTROL + C) and Save (CONTROL + S).  These same people could also find it very useful to know that you can change capitalisation of a word using SHIFT + F3, or that you can jump to the Edit Font combo box on the toolbar using CONTROL + F.